Hey there...Just a quick question. I know this is off the beaten trail, but has anyone ever used a front axle from a VW for a gasser? I have a 56 VW Van that I was thinking of raping if I could use the front axle on my 57 Chevy Post...I know this might sound stupid, but just a thought...Thanx
i think it would look funny. its not hard to find a good straight axle for cheap. dont destroy that van. i believe the common axles are econoline van axles.
yeah,...wouldnt look good. ....sell the 56 VW van on www.thesamba.com for big cash and use the money to buy a new straight axle from speedway..
The other thread was closed, that must indicate something. Anyway I just want to show you guys this again. No it's not the VW front end that makes this car look good. On the other hand it's probably not the VW stuff that makes it look bad either. We have seen enough cars with to long wheel bases lately. Consider this as some kind of antidote to that. //Magnus
If you truely have a '56 VW bus I wouldn't admit your thoughts for the front end on The Samba either. They'll chew you a new one over there. Please like Unkl IAn said, sell it to someone that will appreciate it and buy a real front axle.
WOW! can't believe how IGNORANT some of these "traditional police" realy are. i've seen PLENTY of 60s gassers with VW beam front ends in them... it is still ugly (IMHO) but damned it is'nt traditional. in this case i'd build the VW and buy a straight axle for the gasser... or sell one to fund the other if thats what you want/need to do.
Must be an area thing. I've never seen anyone use a VW front axle on a gasser. They're for dune buggies
A 56 VW bus is probably worth stupid money to the right person (almost in the realm of 32 ford stuff for pre-53 VW bus shit....56 is still probably $$$$). Sell the bus and go buy the parts you really want.
I don't think I'd use it for a gasser either but this comment strikes me as funny. When I first got my 31 Pontiac a restorer friend shouted at me angrily "Sell it to somebody that will appreciate it and buy something fiberglass."
I'e got a VW suspension in a gasser. Its a suspension meant to hold up the front end of a car with the motor behind the rear wheels. Good idea to put it in a car with a 600-800 pounds of detroit cast iron above it? likely no. The guy I bought the car from said the car never handled right, and that the whole idea wasn't great. I'm installing a tube axle. David
I prefer a straight axle but it was done, this gasser was built back in the day and it uses a VW axle.
I can't see any advantage over a stock front end in a 57 Chevy...and just because some people used it isn't a good thing either. The 50's and 60's were an age of experimentation...lots of things were tried...some things worked and looked better than others. Straight axle proved to be the way to go, both in looks and performance...at the track, with hard slicks anyway. I'd just get sick of trying to explain WHY I chose a VW beam over anything else for use in that application...and I WOULD use one for certain car buildups (think LOW)...just not a 57 Chevy. Cutting a bus would suck too....
Here are some pics of Cars with Bug Front Suspensions in them. The Pic of " No big Thing" would make me think twice about using one. Look at the Toe In... ( bumpsteer ) Bob Carnes built his Prototype Bocar ( the X1 ) with Jag XK120 Front suspension, the later XP production cars had VW Front Suspensions. And the X1 later got changed to one as well. I wouldnt use one, unless I was restoring a old Racer that ran with one...
Actually I recall a very important piece of hot rod history type who used parts of the V-dub front end on the some show rods in the early to mid 60s. I'm not calling it trad as far as being a common thing to see, and I probably wopuldn't consider it myself unless I was building a digger and then I might cabbage enough bits n pieces from one to build a torsion bar front for one. That is if I already had it and didn't have access to something different. On the other hand I'd like to have an old micro bus myself to play with, but I'm not real interested in dropping my entire retirement fund on one.
Kent Fuller used VW torsion bar components in his early rails. The VW torsion spring pack was a cheap and easy way to a light weight spring for many dragster home builders back then.
youre right, it sounds stupid. break out some dough for a speedway straight axle kit.it comes with perches, springs, shackles,and frame mounts and will keep your car from looking totally gay for less than 5 bills
Geezzzz Rootie....that Fuller sidewinder chassis is AWESOME! Modified VW torsion tubes look right at home too. Something like that would be wicked as a single seat, bike engined...commuter vehicle. You know...fuel mileage concerns and all.
Why use a Speedway axle when you can use one from MAS and save a little money for the same thing ?I have seen pics of VWee axles in gassers and they do look a little odd to me.I really think gassers look best with a straight tube axle (no drop) ,but this is just my 2 cents .After all its your car so you should do it how you want...
Gus, do you remember, or have any pics of, that little Bantam-bodied roadster that was at Autorama, I think 2 years ago, that the old guy built in the late '50's - early '60's, and still owns,...had a VW front axle on it with 15" spindle-mount 12 spokes?.....
It's just my opinion but, I have always wanted to put a V8 in the back of one of those VW vans. They used to be all over southern California and most of them couldn't do more than 55 with a good tail wind going downhill on ice. I was getting gas one day in Malibu and I heard some radical engine noises and watched this V-8 VW van doing a wheelie and racing a Fox Body Mustang uphill and beating the snot out of that Mustang it was awesome and I laughed my ass off. The best sleeper I had ever seen.
If it were me, I'd consider running a straight axle and selling the VW stuff to fund it. If I was dead set on running VW, then I'd go old-school. King and link. Which is what most of the serious off-road guys use, BTW. Tougher than the ball joint front ends. My .02 on aesthetics: if I was going to run a set of modern discs and 1-800-hotrod stuff on a speedway axle, I wouldn't think it any more 'traditional' than using a Beetle front end. If the car is light enough, then you might go looking for a veewie torsion tube to use instead of springs. Kinda' like in the pics in an earlier post. Best of luck whichever way you go. -bill
The bus axle would be a bad choice with the swing lever and split tie rods. Anyone who has seen one on a gasser has seen a Type I (Beetle) axle not a Type II (Transporter) axle. Even the crappiest most fucked up VW Transporter is worth more if you part it out. You could make enough cash to buy a proper axle.
...there's a neat VW bug gasser that shows up at Goodguys DesMoines every year and he didn't even use the VW axle, he used early Ford with cross spring.
sorry to bring up old thread but for people saying that vw front suspensions are not traditional you are wrong I have a 34 ford truck I am rebuilding that was a drag truck back in the sixties and it has a vw front suspension in it, and heres a picture that will some everything up, look near the top right at the how to
I think the whole "trad" thing was already covered... three years ago. Post your stuff in a build thread with your truck... everyone loves a build thread.
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